Four Different Styles Used for Trading Stocks

Four Different Styles Used for Trading Stocks

While many investors try to emulate “buy and hold” investors like Warren Buffett, not everyone has the conviction or the patience to wait out positions over years or decades.

For active investors in the market, it’s pretty common to see switching in and out of positions – sometimes over the course of months to years, and sometimes on a much more frequent basis.

Trading Stocks: Examining Four Styles

Today’s infographic comes to us from StocksToTrade and it highlights key differences between four trading styles, along with the methods frequently used to identify each trade.

The styles range from having holding periods of months or years, all the way down to mere minutes!

As these holding timeframes get smaller, the focus typically shifts from evaluating a stock’s fundamentals to gauging short-term technical indicators.

1. Position Trading
Position traders look closely at a company’s fundamentals in order to accumulate sizable positions that they hold for periods of months or years. This could be done using growth investing or value investing methodologies. Meanwhile, technical analysis can be used to time each individual trade.

2. Swing Trading
Swing traders go with the flow. They aim to capture the gains of a stock (or options) as they attain short-term momentum in the market. This can be achieved by having a watch list of many interesting stocks, and constantly evaluating technical indicators until an opportunity is spotted.

3. Day Trading
The notorious day trader is usually glued to his or her computer screen, trading stocks throughout the course of a day. It’s a full-time job not meant for the faint of heart; however, there are people out there who have developed very effective strategies as well as the work ethic to do it strategically.

4. Scalp Trading
In scalp trading, it can be said that small profits add up. The goal here: to sell every time a profit window appears, and to do so many, many times!

This usually involves thousands of trades in a year and access to a live feed and direct-access broker. Scalp trading also requires a strict exit strategy, as any whiff could erase many previous gains.

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Jeff is the Editor-in-Chief of Visual Capitalist, a media site that creates and curates visuals on business and investing. He has been quoted or featured on Business Insider, Forbes, CNBC, MarketWatch, The Huffington Post, The World Economic Forum, and Fast Company.